A multitude of centrifuge rotors are known from the prior art which each have a receiving chamber that can be sealed with a lid. This protects the centrifuge and the environment from contamination in the event of a vessel rupture inside the receiving chamber of the rotor.
DE 10 2005 014 218 B4 discloses a mounting device for the lid of a centrifuge rotor. The mounting device comprises a latching element which cooperates with a rotor pin and is provided in a handle for the lid, with the latching element partly protruding from the handle and being supported such that the centrifugal force acting on the latching element will urge it into a locking position.
The above mentioned mounting device allows the lid to be securely locked on the rotor and to be left in its locked state in the event of uncontrolled leakage of sample material in operation. The handle provided on the lid can be used for carrying the rotor when the latter needs to be cleaned, and/or decontaminated, if necessary.
However, this locking mechanism takes up a lot of space as the actual locking action is achieved by bringing the latching element into a latching position where it will cooperate with the rotor pin in the handle of the lid, i.e. locking is accomplished above the lid. To ensure reliable locking, an adequately dimensioned rotor pin has to move through the plane of the lid and then engage the handle. If the axial extension of the rotor pin is too short, reliable locking cannot be achieved. If the radial expansion of the rotor pin is too small, the required stability cannot be ensured. Consequently, this type of locking mechanism is ill-suited for fixed angle rotors in which relatively large sample vessels are used, since the rotor pin takes up a lot of space in the receiving chamber, thus making insertion and removal of sample containers difficult.
Furthermore, the asymmetrical design and the specific location of the latching element will invariably cause imbalances in operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,331 A discloses a generic centrifuge in which the rotor is securely screwed onto the drive shaft for axially securing the rotor thereon. For this purpose, a tool needs to be passed through the lid and the drive shaft in order to turn a screw to either detach the rotor from the drive shaft or to secure the rotor to the drive shaft. Moreover, the rotor can be connected to a lid by means of a quick-release fastener. Operating an actuating member in the form of a pushbutton provided in the lid will detach the lid from the rotor by moving an axially offset latching element from a locking position thereof. Placing the lid onto the rotor will activate the quick-release fastener by displacing the latching element from an unlocking position into a locking position thereof, thus firmly connecting the lid to the rotor.